'Plan to attack US embassy in Dhaka hatched in Pakistan'

Dhaka, Nov 8 : A plan to attack the US embassy here was hatched in Pakistan by the terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Bangladeshi investigators have said.

Madrassa teacher Mufti Harun, who was arrested in Chittagong, told investigators that one LeT leader discussed the plan over telephone from Pakistan and instructed in Arabic the way to execute it.

Besides the American embassy, the high commissions of India and Britain are also believed to be the targets, media reports have said.

Three of his followers were asked to visit the location of the US mission at Baridhara, an area that houses many foreign missions, on Oct 28, detective branch (DB) officials told The New Nation newspaper Sunday.

The three suspected militants - Mufti Harun Izahar, 33, Shahidul Islam, 26, and Al Amin alias Saiful - were picked up from Lalkhan Bazar seminary in Chittagong port town last Wednesday night.

Sanowar Hossain, assistant commissioner of the DB, told newspersons that the mobile phone, which was used to carry out the plan, was seized from the possession of Mufti Harun Izahar.

The police officials are hunting for six more suspects who were involved in the plan. Police have been maintaining secrecy about the details of the suspects.

After analysing the mobile call list, the investigating officials are certain that the carrier of the mobile phone, Mufti Harun Izahar, went to Baridhara road near the US Embassy and photographed the red building of the mission with his handset.

Three suspected militants were detected to have been roaming on the road close to the US Embassy in Dhaka at the same time.

One phone call came from Pakistan at about 2.15 p.m. on this mobile phone. The call duration was two minutes and 39 seconds while another call came from Pakistan at about 3.03 p.m., said Hossain.

After receiving a message from Pakistan, the three suspected militants left the place, the official said.

Several more people, including some foreign nationals, are under watch in connection with the plot. The clue to the plan came from arrests made in the US.

US citizen David Colelman Headley alias Gilani Daud and Pakistan-born Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana were arrested in Chicago last month while Abdur Rahman Sayeed was detained in Pakistan last week.

The three had ordered the Let men in Bangladesh to attack the US embassy, The Daily Star reported Sunday.

"Not only the US embassy, they may attempt to attack other places as well," Bangladesh officials told the newspaper.